Introduction: Chili Twinkie

This project is a fun project for both chili pepper afficianados and those with a sense of humor.  This is my 12-year old son's creation!  It is sort of a Russian roulette with homemade twinkies.  We made four twinkies, and filled one with a Thai dragon pepper filling.  Will you get the fiery one or will you get a normal one?  Either way, it is delicious!

This project is a fun project to do with kids.  Most kids need supervision in the kitchen with hot ovens and power tools. My son wrote these instructions, and I edited them. 

Step 1: Making the Twinkie Molds

First you get some a tinfoil square and fold it in half.  Then fold it in half again.  Now you will end with a small tinfoil square.  Now you put a twinkie sized spice jar in the middle of the tinfoil square an fold the tinfoil over.  Then you are left with a twinkie mold.  Make as many of these as you want and then put them in a metal pan. We are a small family, we only made 4.

Step 2: Making the Twinkie Batter

We adapted another recipe for this project:

Ingredients
Non-stick spray
1 egg white
4 oz. golden pound cake mix
1/6 cup of water

Put some non-stick spay on the tins then put in an egg white in a separate mixing bowl.  Beat the egg white on high until stiff and put it off to the side.  Measure out 4oz of golden pound cake mix and put that aside.  Put 1/6ncup of water in a mixing bowl and add the pound cake mix and then mix together for 2 minutes.  Add the egg white and mix until blended.  Now fill each twinkie mold to 3/4 inch deep. 


Step 3: Cooking the Batter


Pre-heat the oven at 325 degrees and then put in the full tins for 30 minutes.  They are ready when a toothpick will come out clean.  When finished, gently remove the tin foil molds and cool the twinkies on a rack. 

Step 4: The Filling

Ingredients
1/2 tsp. very hot water
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup marshmallow creme
2 T. unsalted butter
1 tsp. powdered sugar
Drop or two of vanilla extract
Drop or two of red food coloring


To make the filling, mix a pinch of salt into 1 tsp. of very hot water.  Mix until salt is dissolved, then set aside to cool. 

Combine 1/2 cup marshmallow creme, 2 T. unsalted butter, 2 tsp. powdered sugar, and a few drops of vanilla extract.    Beat with an electric mixer on high until fluffy.   Add the salt water mixture and mix. 

Separate 1/4 of the filling mixture into a cup.  Now, time to add the fire - a 1/4 tsp. of chili powder and 1/2 of a dried Thai Dragon pepper.   Don't add any of the pepper seeds unless you like it REALLY hot.  We also added a drop of red food coloring to make it the obvious Chili Twinkie.   If you like your filling spicier, you could add more chili powder, Thai pepper seeds, tabasco sauce, or chipotle adobo sauce.  




Step 5: Filling the Twinkies


To fill the twinkies, poke three holes in the bottom of each twinkie, Using a baggie with the corner cut out, squeeze a small amount of filling into each hole. You may want to tamp the filling into the hole and then top it off with more filling.  We used a chopstick to make the holes and help push the filling into the holes.

Use a separate baggie for the chili filling. Fill one twinkie with the sweet-spicy filling.

Step 6: The Final Product

Arrange on a platter so that the bottom filling holes are hidden.  Offer the platter of twinkies to your friends and family.  Each person gets a twinkie.  Who gets the fiery twinkie?  Taste and tell. 

We sliced open the Chili Twinkie to show how it looks.  

How does it taste?  We made our Chili Twinkie rather mild because that is the way we like it.  It is an interesting sweet taste with a tingly hot afterglow.